You’ve probably seen the infomercials for “Your Town Your Real Estate Profits” by Dean Graziosi. Well, Dean actually called me the other day about a pay per click listing (he trademarked his name) that a friend had on his Google adwords account. This got me to add his products to my to-review list. As the son of a real estate investor, I took an interest in this as well.

He’s a real estate expert and has authored  many books on the topic. They’re about half inspirational and half information on real estate. It’s not a “scam” like you’ll see on many message boards, but it’s a bit deceptive how he hides the real goal, which is to get you into the coaching packages that can cost north of $12,000.

All infomercials do this, whether it’s Jeff Paul, John Beck, John Alexander, or whoever. The book is just a lead in to upsell you on high priced mentoring packages. The reviews on this were really polarized. Either they were praising it to the sky or screaming that they got scammed (the ones who couldn’t get a refund on the $5,000-$12,000 package were livid. I discounted the comments on his own site, they’re cheerleader style sales copy. The ones on Ebay and Amazon were the best, they had reviews written by real people (and some clearly knew what they were doing in real estate).

Another issue I have with Dean Graziosi’s current work is saying that it’s easy to get financing, or if you don’t have any money that you can easily find an investor to front the money. Neither of them are easy to find now. One gentleman I spoke with last month said he had $200,000 down and good credit, and couldn’t get anyone to write him a mortgage on a $400,000 house. The days of easy credit or zero paperwork loans are long gone.

F rating with the BBB. His Real Estate Academy also has an F

Dean Graziosi has a horrible record with the BBB, both his companies have an F rating and the BBB sent their last notice to his mailing address and it came but undeliverable. Complaints got so bad on Ripoffreport.com that they paid the  (last I heard) $5,000 fee and $500 a month maintenance fee for Dean Graziosi And Dean Enterprises, and his Think a little different companies so they’d take all the negatives and replace them with endorsements how great they are. I’ve heard people from Ripoffreport saying how it’s good for consumers because they have to agree to make their unhappy customers happy. What if they don’t? Do you think Ripoffreport is going to kick them out and stop taking their $500 a month?

In a nutshell: This is a lot harder than they let on. You will need money and good credit or an investor. There’s bargains to be had out there these days, but credit is much harder to qualify for. You can buy his books on Amazon.com without being snared into the upsell machine for the coaching. I wish you well if you decide to pursue real estate investing, but it’s not for the lazy.

I think Dean Graziosi sincerely wants people to do well in real estate, and have never heard anything negative about him personally. I just can’t understand why their customer service staff would let their BBB rating hit rock bottom when running national infomercials though. They spent so much time making sites with “Dean Graziosi scam” on the pages of a report where they spam those keywords to try to drown out the critical reviews and message boards, I’d think responding to the BBB would be a better use of time.

In Deans defense, any business opportunity will have a failure rate. Real estate investing is a risk, and even the best investor loses money from time to time. I’d personally recommend going on Amazon.com and buying several books on the subject and get a broad knowledge before taking the plunge. Also I’d get a book on how to do a home inspection, so when you’re viewing a property the first time, you’ll know what to look for.

If you’re shopping for a business opportunity, you’re welcome to head to my Top Pick page and find out the only one I do. It’s not mentioned anywhere on the blog because of the SEC rule that holds parent companies responsible for the claims of their distributors. You can find out there though, and without the spam or sales pitch if you’re curious.